More than a dozen school districts across northeast Wisconsin are asking voters for additional funding this Election Day, including Little Chute and Seymour, where district leaders say financial pressures could force difficult budget decisions if their referendums fail.
The Little Chute Area School District has two questions on the Nov. 3 ballot, while the Seymour Community School District is asking voters to approve a three-year, $15 million operational referendum.
Seymour District Administrator Kellie Bohn said the district has been squeezed by state aid that has not kept pace with rising costs, along with declining enrollment.
“State aid just has not kept up with the pace of inflation, and then we’re getting less of it because the number of students is also decreasing,” Bohn said.
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What Seymour is asking voters to approve
Seymour's referendum would allow the district to exceed its state-imposed revenue limit by $5 million per year for three years, beginning with the 2027-28 school year and ending with the 2029-30 school year. That would provide up to $15 million for operational and maintenance expenses, including staffing and maintaining programs and services.
The district describes an operational referendum as funding for day-to-day expenses, including utilities, facility maintenance, staff salaries and benefits, curriculum and technology. Seymour says the proposed referendum would not increase the district's tax rate during the three-year referendum period.
Bohn compared some of the district's needs to maintaining a home.
“I think just like your house is, it gets to a point you can’t put off those projects anymore. You have to do them,” Bohn said.
Bohn said Seymour has so far been able to reduce staffing through attrition, but a failed referendum could lead to more significant reductions.
“Unfortunately, although we’ve been able to reduce our staff number through attrition, we’ll have to look at more aggressive layoffs,” Bohn said.
Little Chute voters will answer two questions
The Little Chute Area School District is putting two separate referendum questions before voters, one for technology-related operational expenses and another for facility improvements. The School Board approved the two questions in August after the district held informational sessions and evaluated projected resources and needs.
The first question would allow the district to exceed its state revenue limit by $400,000 annually for five years, from the 2027-28 through 2031-32 school years. The money would pay for technology hardware, software and infrastructure. That proposal would continue funding currently provided through a $300,000-per-year technology referendum that expires after the 2026-27 school year.
The district says previous referendum dollars have helped pay for student devices, classroom technology, computers, Wi-Fi improvements, networking equipment, cybersecurity and other technology infrastructure.
The second question would authorize Little Chute to borrow up to $1.95 million for capital improvements. The district says the projects include roof repairs and replacement, asbestos abatement and related high school renovations, air-conditioning replacement at the elementary school, and furnishings, fixtures and equipment.
The district plans to combine that borrowing with approximately $1 million from its own capital improvement funds, creating roughly $2.95 million for the proposed facility work.
Little Chute says the projects were identified through its 10-year capital improvement plan because of the age and condition of district infrastructure. The district says the projects are too large to pay for through its regular maintenance budget without delaying other maintenance or reducing money available for existing programs and services.
“If we do not pass the operating budget, we still have those needs,” Little Chute District Administrator Heidi Schmidt said. “So we will need to find those funds in other ways … and make cuts if we need to.”
What would Little Chute's referendums cost taxpayers?
Little Chute estimates its operational referendum would increase the tax rate by 10 cents per $1,000 of property value above the existing referendum rate, or about $10 per year for every $100,000 of property value.
The capital referendum is estimated to add another 18 cents per $1,000 of property value, or about $18 annually for every $100,000 in property value. If both questions pass, the district estimates the combined increase at approximately $28 per year for every $100,000 of property value. The district cautions that those figures are preliminary and could change based on property values, state aid, interest rates and the overall tax levy. The tax impact would begin in 2027.
Neither district is new to referendums.
Little Chute voters have approved a series of operational technology referendums dating to at least 2007. Its current $300,000 annual technology referendum was approved in 2022 and expires after the 2026-27 school year. The district also has outstanding debt from a $17.77 million capital referendum approved in 2017, with the final payment scheduled for 2037.
District leaders say absent a larger change in the way schools are funded, local referendums will likely remain one of the tools districts use to meet needs that exceed the funding available through their regular budgets.
Voters will decide both districts' referendum questions Tuesday, Nov. 3.
More information is available through the Little Chute Area School District referendum page and the Seymour Community School District referendum page.
